Message from Alumni

Work for you dream to come true

Immunology Frontier Research Center (iFReC)Systems Immunology

Bakhtiyor Nosirov, Ph.D.

After I got my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science in my country, Uzbekistan, it was my dream to go abroad and get PhD degree in Bioinformatics in one of the reputable universities in the world. My research interest was to study immunology and disease related problems by Bioinformatics methods, so I contacted Prof. Daron Standley, head of the bioinformatics oriented Systems Immunology Lab at Osaka University (OU) in Japan, with my research proposal. He responded to my research proposal positively and gave an opportunity to join his lab as a PhD student. Therefore, when I won MEXT scholarship through multiple step examinations and interviews conducted by Japanese Embassy in Uzbekistan, I came to OU in April, 2012. OU is always ranked among the top 50-60 universities in the world and provides high quality education and research in a wide range of scientific fields. Besides, it is situated in Osaka, which is the second largest metropolitan city (after Tokyo) in Japan and is considered "kitchen of Japan". These factors, along with others, also played a key role in my decision to come to OU.

The Systems Immunology lab is part of Immunology Frontier Research Center (iFReC) at OU, and doesn't directly belong to the Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences (FBS). However, I could join the doctorate program of FBS because of Prof. Daron Standley's affiliation to FBS as well and his recommendation for my application. During my PhD study, I was shown great support by both the professor and administrative staff working at FBS whenever I needed. It was also enjoyable to participate in and learn from the regular scientific talks and presentations organized by FBS, as well as iFReC, by inviting famous scientists from other Japanese and international universities.

I think FBS, different from other graduate schools at OU, has unique environment not only to support international students in their studies, but also to help them get used to the life in Japan and learn more about Japanese culture. For example, we had many bus trips organized for the international students to go to the historical and touristic places in Kansai (i.e. Osaka, Kyoto, Nara) and Hyogo (i.e. Kobe, Himeji, etc) prefectures. The trips were also rich for various other activities such as experiencing famous Japanese tea ceremony, learning how to make sushi and different traditional Japanese crafts, and even strawberry picking. These kind of trips and other events (like welcome party, year-end party and monthly lunch-on meetings, etc.) organized by FBS was a great opportunity for us, international students, to meet often, to talk and to become really good friends eventually.

In brief, if you want to get a graduate degree while doing cutting-edge research in biosciences, the Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences at Osaka University has a lot to offer for your research and life in Japan to be enjoyable experience.